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MANHATTAN -- William Blankenau, professor of economics, has been promoted to head of the department of economics at Kansas State University. Blankenau had been serving as interim head of the department since fall 2009.

"Dr. Blankenau has done a great job as interim head, and I am confident that he will continue to effectively lead the department," said Brian Spooner, interim dean of the K-State College of Arts and Sciences.

Since joining K-State in 2001, Blankenau has taught courses in growth and macroeconomics at the graduate and undergraduate levels. He also has served as director of graduate studies.

Blankenau publishes extensively in the area of macroeconomics. Much of his work looks at the macroeconomic consequences of government education expenditures. His current research investigates the influence of early childhood spending on the level and distribution of income. His earlier work in this area evaluated how the level and timing of government education spending influences economic growth and the wage premium earned by college graduates. Related research explores the influence of education policy on student effort.

He also has published several papers that consider the effect of technological change on the labor market in different sectors of the U.S. economy. Other work studies business cycles in small open economies and evaluates the cyclical properties of economic activity occurring in households.

Blankenau has received several honors for his work, including a William L. Stamey Award for Excellence in Teaching from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Edgar S. Bagley Research Award from the department of economics in recognition of career accomplishment in research and scholarship. Blankenau was served as a visiting professor at the department of economics at the Universidad Carlos III in Madrid, Spain, while on sabbatical in spring 2009.

Blankenau received his doctorate in economics from the University of Iowa. He also has a master'sineconomics from Colorado State University and a bachelor's in business administration from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.